Annisa's Senior Project

All Seniors at Hempfield are required to complete a Senior project, which is a writing assignment.  Here is Annisa's.  In her own words.

Graduation Project



Over the past three summers, I have volunteered on community service projects with my church youth group at Unitarian Universalist Church of Harrisburg. The Unitarian Universalists do not have a single sacred place of worship instead we do work to help others, which is one of the church’s seven principles. As part of our community service, I participated in three pilgrimages with my youth group. Most people think of a pilgrimage as a journey to a sacred place, like Mecca or Jerusalem. However, my church calls this these trips a Pilgrimage because it a journey to help others who are in need. The summer before my tenth grade year, I went on a service trip to Washington D.C. for a week. The focus was on helping homeless people. The summer before my eleventh grade year, I went on a service trip to New Orleans for a week. The focus was on helping people that were affected by hurricane Katrina.


In Washington D.C., our Pilgrimage focused on helping homeless people. We volunteered at a soup kitchen, which served breakfast and lunch. That was really fun because we got to help make the food and we were able to sit and talk with the homeless people. We got to learn about how they became homeless and how they are trying to change their lives. We helped sell their newspaper, which was called “Street Sense”. I hated selling the newspaper because it brought me to grips about how a homeless person felt. I was ignored and got glared at. I could tell that individuals passing by did not like the fact that my friend Derek and I were helping out the homeless. I became so mad at these individuals because most of the people would just walk by without saying anything. We were under the impression that most people would respond to us by at least said “no thank you” or “sorry” instead of ignoring us. While we were selling the paper, we figured out that individuals wearing suits were the worst. They wouldn’t even look at us or respond when we asked them if they could help out. It brought to light how rude people can be and how overlooked the homeless population is in D.C.


One day during our Pilgrimage, a couple of friends and I went out to eat at Subway and we couldn’t finish our food. We were going to take the food back to the church where we were staying but we saw a homeless person outside and I suggested that we give our leftovers to the man. Everyone agreed with me, which was good. We gave the man the food and he thanked us. He expressed that he was grateful to be noticed. I was really happy that we gave him the food because it made me feel like I was doing the right thing. It also made me feel like I was being a good person. While I was on the Washington D.C. pilgrimage, I got a chance to talk to a homeless person and asked them how it feels to be homeless. They told me that it’s hard because most people don’t even notice them, which makes them sad. Let me give you a heads up, if you ever see a homeless person, please consider talking to them or giving them some money because that would make them feel really good. My experiences talking to homeless people were interesting. They told me how people ignore them and how that makes them feel. Some of them say that people give them dirty looks and make disgusted sounds at them. One of them suggested that every time I see a homeless person I should always say hello to them because just one simple hello will go a long way.


In New Orleans, our pilgrimage focused on helping people who were affected by hurricane Katrina. Before we left we watched a documentary, “Trouble the Water,” that told us about what happened during Hurricane Katrina. The one thing that I will always remember about that movie was when people were stuck in their attic and they called 911. The woman on the phone said that they couldn’t do anything about them being stuck in the attic. They had to say that because too many rescue works were out and about helping other people. This movie definitely impacted my view of those suffering from Hurricane Katrina and made me anxious to get started helping the people. My youth group was stationed at the 9th Ward; the area hit the hardest by the Hurricane. Our main goal was to clean up a garden so that the people would have a place to grow vegetables. Many people thought that the damage caused by Hurricane Katrina was all cleaned up and taken care of but it was the complete opposite. We saw locations devastated. One elementary school was no longer standing. In place of it was a field of grass. Also, the homes were still all broken and the black and red "x’s" located on the windows were still visible.


I had a great experience going on these trips. It made me feel good because I was helping those in need. I also felt sad because it was difficult to compare all of the things that I have in my life to what little the homeless and those suffering from the Hurricane have. As part of my dedication to my church, I will continue to participate in pilgrimages and look to assist people in need in any way possible. This year, another trip is being planned in the Appalachia area. There will always be individuals who are suffering; however, one person can make a difference and I want to be that one person.